This invention relates to chair constructions made of laminated wood or the like.
The construction of chairs from laminated wood is generally well known as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,385,387 to Morandi. The formation of wood laminates from flat stacks of panel layers while the panels are being bent into a desired shape, is also well known. Usually, adhesive coatings between the layers are electronically activated while the layers are under pressure between the bending dies in a bending press, as referred to in U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,015 to Johnston. The latter patent teaches that a curved laminated wood product may be formed during a single bending operation and yet be resistant to cracking and splitting and have the other necessary structural attributes for furniture or chair parts. The formation of chairs by folding of a single flat blank is expressly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,670,787 to Vandas et al.
Although the prior art as exemplified by the foregoing U.S. patents indicates that the technology has advanced to the point where laminated wood chairs may be completely formed in a single bending operation from a flat precut blank, no such product has been successfully marketed on a wide scale because of what are believed to be structural and economical as well as esthetic drawbacks. It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a one-piece laminated wood chair of pleasing appearance that has the requisite strength and is capable of being manufactured in an economically feasible fashion. A further object of this invention is to provide a one-piece, laminated wood chair capable of being easily molded and machined from a flat blank.